Who makes the better manager, men or women? Of course, like most questions the answer is not definitive. However, certain female characteristics may provide women with some advantages.
MANAGEMENT
The basic job of a manager is often described as performing the functions of: Planning, Organizing, Leading and Controlling. Who is better at this? Of course, men have dominated management jobs for decades, centuries, even millennia. Men naturally assumed working roles because of their size and strength, when most jobs required these attributes. And, just as naturally they progressed to management roles. For much of recent history, women did not enjoy a significant presence in the workforce. However, during World War II, women were needed to assume manufacturing and other jobs, while men went off to war. Still, following the war a sentiment of "a woman's place is in the home" reemerged.
For the past several decades women have re-entered the workforce in large numbers so that now the male/female worker percentages are not too far from parity. While men still occupy most top positions, the number of women serving as managers and executives continues to increase.
EVOLVING JOB REQUIREMENTS FOR MANAGERS
As the nature of work has evolved so has the job of management. Far from requiring physical prowess, managerial positions now require such abilities as: mental agility, communications skills, technical and computer savvy, writing ability, analytical skills, etc. Most of our work is now cerebral, not physical. Higher level skills generally require more education.
WHO'S BETTER SUITED TO TODAY'S DEMANDS?
Interestingly enough, women college students now outnumber men. And, with more professional jobs in the employment market, women have the "edge." Women also have the temperament and communications abilities employers value so much. With these educational, emotional and verbal advantages they are tough contenders for management positions. However, not all women are "talkers." and not all men are the "strong silent type." Most of the differences between the sexes can be attributed to parenting and socialization. So, there are wide variations.
There have been several recent studies that support the hypothesis that women may be more capable managers than men. Ratings by peers, superiors and subordinates show higher scores for women on a wide range of measures-- everything from decision-making, to idea generation, to motivation and encouragement, goal-setting, quality of work, mentoring and staff development, etc. Various studies, as reported in Business Week (Online edition, Nov. 20, 2000), uniformly found women managers exceeded the performance of their male counterparts. Several of these studies were not industry-specific, and some were quite comprehensive. One involved a sample of 58,000 mangers.
There is an interesting caveat with all of this data. Evaluations of managers by their bosses (only) found less difference between men and women managers. Part of this may be due to stereotypes, and the fact that more males occupy the top positions.
THE BASIC DETERMINATION
Yes, in fact, women may be better-suited to succeed in management in contemporary work environments. And not considering women for top management slots would be a huge mistake. But we must not be simplistic in concluding they are the best managers. Although women have strengths, so do men. And, not all women, or men, have the same strengths or weaknesses. To definitively conclude that one sex is better than the other would result in the error of unwarranted generalization. Furthermore we want to avoid the stereotyping that has characterized the assessment of people for far too long. And, we must consider how well that individuals talents match with those needed in the specific position. In the final analysis each individual must be evaluated on their particular merits.
Copyright © 2008, Dr. Ben A. Carlsen, MBA. All Rights Reserved Worldwide for all Media. You may reprint this article in your ezine, newsletter, newspaper, magazine, website, etc. as long as you leave all of the links active, do not edit the article in any way, leave my name and bio box intact, and you follow all of the EzineArticles Terms of Service for Publishers.
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